Titanic Belfast, the world’s largest attraction dedicated to the famous sunken ship, opened its doors last week in the capital of Northern Ireland.

Located on the site where Titanic was designed and built, Titanic Belfast’s six floors feature nine galleries dedicated to experiences within the ship.

Designed by Todd Architects and CivicArts, the complex is also Ireland’s largest tourism project covering 14,000m2.

Titanic Belfast is the centrepiece of the $11bn Titanic Quarter development, one of Europe’s largest urban waterfront regeneration schemes which is turning a 75ha site on the banks of Belfast’s River Lagan into a new mixed-use maritime quarter with a mile of water frontage.

The building will also house temporary exhibits, a 1,000–seat banqueting suite, education and community facilities, catering and retail space and a basement car park.

Its striking exterior façade replicates four 27m-high hulls clad in 3,000 individual silver anodized aluminium shards, of which two–thirds are unique in design.

The resolution of the geometries required the use of sophisticated 3D–modelling.

The building took three years to complete – the same length of time as Titanic itself – and is designed to accommodate up to 1m visitors annually.

Paul Crowe, Managing Director of Todd Architects, commented: “Todd Architects has invested almost four years of work into this truly global project delivering a building which has changed Belfast’s skyline and will help transform international perceptions of the city itself.

“Developing a building that reflected the ingenuity, ambition and scale of Titanic has been an immense professional challenge – one we are delighted to have met.”

Todd Architects also includes a number of other Titanic Quarter projects in its portfolio, including Citi’s Gateway Office, the Belfast Metropolitan College, the Public Records Office of Northern Ireland and the new Titanic Quarter Film Studios.